Trigger Figures and Tranq Darts
by Writer With Sprite
Summary: Meet Benjamin Daniels and Alex Rider, Scorpia's two latest agents. They've been given an assignment: Take out K-Unit. They plan to do this by taking out Wolf first and using him to lure the other members. But have our heroes really gone bad, or are they simply brainwashed? This is what Wolf must find out, no matter what the cost to himself.
1. You've Captured My Intentions

Title: Trigger Figures and Tranq Darts

Summary: Seeing the two side-by-side made Wolf realize exactly where he knew them from. The seventeen year old was the Cub he'd trained with at Breacon Beacons. And 'Matt' was Fox. Now the only question he had was what the hell were they doing here and why were they holding him hostage?

Warnings: Violence, occasional graphic violence, and swearing. We're talking about - well, I better not give that away yet.

Putting this in the A/R category for the first two chapters as it will focus much more on Alex Rider, then moving it over to the AR/Numb3rs crossover.

Disclaimer: Anthony Horwitz retains all rights to the characters he owns. I retain all rights to my unique story ideas. **ASK BEFORE BORROWING OR TRANSFERRING IDEAs. I don't bite, honest! **

* * *

"There's the target," the seventeen year old teenager said quietly to twenty-seven-year-old as he watched the blonde-haired blue eyed man walk closer to his black car. "Well, one of them anyway. We going to jump him?" Alex searched his older brother's eyes waiting for answers as he watched their target walk closer to the car. His trigger finger flinched on the tranq dart. Damn Matt and his patience.

"What is it with you and jumping people?" the other man snapped back. He was used to his partner's random urges and tried his best to work around them. "Not yet. He's got his guard up. Can't you see him looking around? If we grab him now he'll fight back and create a scene. I don't want to take on the entire unit at once."

"Damn. You're always so picky," the teen boy responded. The older man rolled his eyes at the puppy dog look.

"The unit has specialized military training, remember? We can't possibly take on four of them. We're good, professional, but not stupid. Remember what happens when we're stupid? I can't take the chance that they'll hurt you again," the man said as he placed his hand on the boy's arm.

"Do we take this unit member or another one?" The teen said, feeling uncomfortable under the man's watchful gaze. He wished the man would turn back and look at

The older man bit his inner lip. "This one," he said finally. As the man moved to lock the car, he was distracted for just a second. With that, the teenage boy threw himself at the man's legs. The man cried out in surprise and his keys were flung.

The adult grabbed the car keys, slipping them into his pocket. He fixed his gun on the unit member, covering him. "Nice job there, Alex. You. Don't move. What's your name?"

Alex could sense the other male trying to create a distraction, so he gripped the man's legs tighter, knowing that he could break free from his hold any second. While he appreciated Matt's attempt to torture the suspect now, this wasn't at all what they needed. "Matt. Tranquilizer dart."

And that was why there were two of them. Matt had saved his hide plenty of times too, especially during training.

"Wolf," the man said suddenly. "My name is Wolf. You don't need to tranq me, I'll go -"

Within seconds, the man was unconscious.

"Help me lift him up," Alex said. "Nice work with the tranq. You could have just killed him, though."

"We're to take out the unit, not just one person. We can use this person to lure the others. Let's get him in the car before someone else sees him," 'Matt' said as he moved towards the still body. He shifted the gun to Alex before he bent over and picked the sleeping form up. The body was put in the trunk, and it was locked shut. The two kidnappers quickly got into the car, totally unaware that they had been seen by someone who was now on their cell phone, hastily dialing 911.

It was probably better that way. Otherwise, there might be another dead body in the streets. The person hit the dial and said, "Hello, 911? I want to report a kidnapping..."

* * *

Wolf groaned as he awoke, trying to figure out where the hell he was and why on earth his head felt like it was pounding and ready to jump out of his skull. He frowned as he tried to move his hands, only to find that they were cuffed roughly behind his back. His feet revealed the same story. He was neither blindfolded nor gagged and Wolf sighed. Obviously his captors thought he couldn't easily escape.

Or they weren't worried about him seeing them.

Wonderful, either way.

Memories from the previous night came back to Wolf like a flood. He'd been going out to the car to get his wallet so they could order pizza, and he had heard someone talking. He had locked up his car, pausing, looking like he didn't know what he was doing. The hairs of his neck had stood up like he was in danger. If he would have reacted on instinct when he first felt them, as he was trained to do, then maybe he wouldn't be in this mess.

Then again, they were on vacation. He had told himself that he'd be okay, that he was just being paranoid. Damn stupidity. He should know better than to mock his paranoia.

The door opened and Wolf looked at the individual before him. He was probably about seventeen years old, and had dirty blonde hair; blue eyes. He looked vaguely familiar but Wolf could not place him. "What's your name?" the teenager asked, crossing his arms.

Wolf sighed, the stupid name thing again. That was the only problem with being SAS and taking a vacation with his buddies. He knew that technically he was off the clock, but he'd be damned if they were going to get away with knowing his name. "Wolf, like I said before."

"Your parents named you after a beast?" the teenager asked.

The older adult stepped into the room. "Correction, Alex. Wolves are mammals, just like us, isn't that right?"

Seeing the two side-by-side made Wolf realize exactly where he knew them from. The seventeen year old was the Cub he'd trained with at Breacon Beacons. And 'Matt' was Fox.

Now the only question he had was what the hell were they doing here and why were they holding him hostage?

* * *

FBI Agent Don Eppes, supervisor of the violent crime squad, sat quietly with his coffee in his hands. He was grateful for the weekend that he'd gotten off and was almost ready to face the banter in the office today between Colby and David. Note the "almost." That was why he was in here, sipping on his cup of coffee, watching the clock tick closer to eight o'clock. He saw David slide into his desk, placing his own coffee on the stand.******  
**

Don mildly glanced out from the break room, wondering where Megan and Colby were. While it wasn't unusual for Colby to be one or two minutes late, often citing traffic as a result, Megan was almost always on time. Truthfully, as long as Colby kept his time to being there within ten minutes of his scheduled time, Don didn't give a rat's rear end; he knew that Colby's apartment could be especially vicious on traffic and getting out in the mornings.

Megan Reeves came in, waving at David. Don sighed, deciding now was the time to come out; he'd had enough of solitary anyway. "Morning, Megan, David. Where's Granger?" he asked with a nod towards David's direction.

David shook his head. "Honestly, man. I don't know. He said that he was gonna call me this weekend about maybe getting together for drinks, but I guess he got a little distracted, because he never called."

"Hmm, Granger is never one to pass up free drinks, must've been something important," Megan mused. She was wearing a professional yet attractive dark grey shirt and white jeans. She smiled. "You and Don must've been up earlier than normal; you're both cheerful like you've had coffee."

David grinned. "Glad we're so predictable. What are our marching orders for today, Don?"

"Right now, catching up on paperwork-" Don started to say before his phone rang. "Aw, damn. Hello?" he asked as his cell phone rang.

"Is this FBI Agent Don Eppes?" the voice asked. Don frowned. The voice was older, adult, and reminded him of someone, yet Don could not place it.

"Yes, that's who is speaking," Don answered, motioning to David to move ahead and start to trace the line on the machine. He wanted to know who was calling him. "Who is this?"

"This is Scorpia."

Don frowned, writing down the name. He knew it sounded familiar but couldn't remember why it was familiar. He handed the napkin to Megan, who pulled out her laptop. The tracer was tricking down and Don knew that if they just found out enough information they could -

"...What do you want?"

"I think we've got one of your agents. Granger, maybe. I think that's what his badge says."

Well, that explained why Granger had not shown up to work that day. Damn it, maybe he shouldn't have complained about their banter. "That's my agent. What can I do to get him back?"

"We'll let you know in a few hours. Look up Scorpia and be waiting."

With that, the phone clicked off.

"Did we get a trace?" Don asked.

"We didn't even get a number," David said disgustedly. "However, we do know he's in the same state, so that's good. What's all this about Scorpia?

"I may be able to answer that," a middle age man said. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, and Don thought he noticed the man's telltale accent. "Can we talk in private?"

Don looked over to David. He had the feeling this was going to be a long-ass day.


	2. Bad News and Worse News Today

**A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews for ch1. **

* * *

CHAPTER TWO

"Sure," Don finally said. He turned towards David. "You. Get a search team on Colby's apartment, pronto - and get your ass over there, you'll probably see something they'll miss. Megan - you get together anyone who's available and let's start searching." Finally he turned to the mystery Scottish man. "Let's go in the next room," he responded.

Don shut the door on the interrogation room. "So. Tell me what you know about 'Scorpia', as well as why you're here in the first one."

The man sighed. "You're a lot like Wolf," he said. "All blunt, no BS. Good to know. I'm Snake, by the way."

Raising his eyes, Don responded, "Your parents named you after a reptile?"

"Good guess, but no. Surely you've heard of the SAS from the UK?" he questioned..

"Of course. Every good FBI agent knows about the strong and weak points of other country's intelligence. Special Air Service. You guys operate in groups and under code names," Don responded. He neglected to say he only knew that one because of Colby's obsession with the MI6. "So I'm assuming you're apart of the SAS."

"You assume correctly."

"May I ask why the SAS is here in the United States, as well as how this relates to our case, and why you're here?"

The man smiled. "One question at a time. As you put it so aptly the 'SAS' isn't really here in the United States. My mates and I were. Well, K-Unit anyhow. K-Unit: Me, Wolf, Eagle, and Jackal. I was actually here this morning to report Wolf missing."

"You sure he just didn't walk off for a movie or something?" Don asked.

"Wolf is the team leader," Snake replied. "If it'll help our believability, we've been contacted by Scorpia and there was a surveillance video that clearly shows he's been attacked."

"Do you think Scorpia is planning a larger scale attack against intelligence agencies?" Don asked. "They attacked both your agent and mine."

"No, this is too small for them. Scorpia stands for Sabotage, Corruption, Intelligence, and Assassination. I probably got those out of order. They're deadly. If this was an attack we'd know about it by now. No, this is personal."

"So you think your agent or unit did something that personally pissed them off?"

"I know we did. Two of our friends, a sixteen year old kid named Cub and a twenty-five-year-old named Fox-"

Don interrupted him. "'Cub' have a name? He's not SAS is he?"

"That's another long-ass story I'd rather wait and share until later," Snake responded. "And no, I don't know his name. He trained with us for two weeks at SAS. He's pretty young - it's a long story. We thought his father had put him in SAS 'cuz he was pissed off, but we're not entirely sure now. Anyway-enough of that shit, let's just say they were captured by them. Who is the worst terrorist group in the US?"

Thinking for a minute, Don hesitated. There were so many... "Too many to name, why? Don't the UK SAS usually spend time reading up on our problems?"

"Nice save, there. Scorpia is our worst terrorist group - they captured Benjamin Daniels and Alex Rider six months ago. We've been working on being their recovery unit ever since then. Daniels was a former SAS operative; he transferred to MI6..." he let out a breath, trying to think of how to describe Cub's position. "And Cub was with Daniels when he was captured," He responded. "They were held hostage for six months and declared dead."

"And now they have my agent?" Don asked with a raised eyebrow. Well, there went his break. Why did everyone else get things easier than he did?

"And now they have your agent. I actually didn't come to talk to you about that, though. I have no idea why they would want a federal agent, but..." The man closed his eyes. "They have my squadron leader, Wolf."

"Do we get his real name?"

"Considering I don't know it, no." Snake let out a breath. The last line was a lie - K-Unit had all told each other their names, should a time like this ever arise - but Snake had a bad feeling something would happen if he revealed it. Besides, they'd been off-duty from active duty, and he just didn't trust this FBI agent totally yet.

Part of why names were kept secret in the SAS was to avoid people going after family.

"So we're supposed to find your agent and my agent when we don't know where they're being held, why they were taken, or your agent's name?" Don responded. What the fuck was this - a mutiny? Why did everything bad have to happen to him? Although technically he supposed he should be grateful. After all, he wasn't missing. Still, he was going to have to find his agent who was.

No, that was his agent. Why did fate have to play cruel tricks on him this morning? And he'd been so sure that it was just going to be a paperwork day.

Damnit. That was so not cool.

## break ##

Wolf groaned as he awoke, flooding back to consciousness. He sighed as he reached up - or at least attempted too - before remembering that his hands were handcuffed to the bed. Oh, yeah. He glanced over to the side of him, relieved that he could still see. He frowned. There was another man there, he looked to be about mid-twenties, also unconscious. He also looked like law enforcement.

"Ah, so he awakens," the teenage boy said as he opened the door. "So we know you call yourself Wolf."

Resisting the urge to smack himself with his handcuffed hands, Wolf groaned. Loudly. "Yes. I thought you got that already, though. Cub," he added for emphasis.

The teenager frowned. "My name is Al-wait, why am I even telling you that? You need to be telling me your name, not the other way around." The knife in his hands glittered dangerously.

"Wolf," Wolf replied with a weary sigh, "is my code name, and that's all you're getting out of me at the moment. Tell Fox if he thinks of me really, really hard, he'll probably know my name." Although K-Unit wasn't supposed to tell each other their names, they all had. It was during one of their most intense missions. They'd wanted someone to alert their parents if they died.

The teenager frowned. "His name is Matt, not... Fox."

Wolf would have banged his head against the wall. Fox's real name was Benjamin Daniels. Not Matt. Something was weird here, and Wolf couldn't figure out what. Letting out a sigh he closed his eyes. "Why do you want me?"

"We have orders from SCORPIA to take out K-Unit."

Fuck. Holy fucking mother fucking SHIT. "So why haven't you killed me yet?"

The knife, which Cub had been twirling around in his hands, suddenly stopped. "You might have information that proves to be useful. We also need you to lure K-Unit here."

Holy mother Mary saint J- Wolf cut himself off before he launched himself at Alex, damn the cuffs. He had to remind himself that Alex wasn't really saying these things, or at least he prayed to Mary, Jesus and Joseph and anyone up in the sky who would listen, that Alex wasn't really saying any of these things. If Alex and 'Matt', AKA Ben, were working for Scorpia, he had no doubt they had some deadly training. He sincerely hoped that Alex didn't remember much of those two weeks in K-Unit. Wolf was a different person now, he'd seen more, he understood Alex more.

But he wasn't about to tell Alex that. Not now. He wasn't going to bring it up unless Alex did. Calming himself down, he said, "You're insane if you think I'm doing any luring for you. I'd rather die than watch one of my unit members suffer." Granted, that was probably a bit extreme, but he wanted to let Alex know that in no uncertain terms that he wouldn't help him gain information on himself or his friends.

"...I think you will help us." Alex grinned at Wolf, flashing a smile that sent shivers down Wolf's spine. "I studied under Doctor Three," he said.

"And that's supposed to impress me how?" Wolf asked even as chills ran down his spine. Doctor Three was one of the most... he shuddered, wondering how much Fox and Alex had suffered. He had to talk them down out of their delusions.

At least, Wolf hoped they were only delusions. He groaned as he took his head and beat it against the bed he was on. It was about the only thing that he could move.

"Doctor Three is the torture expert from Scorpia. You should be impressed that Matt stood up to him. Matt never revealed his real name to Doctor Three, so Doctor Three changed whatever his name was to Matt."

Wolf exhaled frustratedly. This was so not going according to his plans, and by that, he meant that everything was about to be shot to hell. Closing his eyes, he forced himself to breathe deeply for just a minute. He inhaled and exhaled, slowly counting so he wouldn't unleash himself on Alex. "...Do you know what Matt's name was before it was changed?"

The look in Alex's eyes became hardened. "How about we work out a deal? You tell me your name first."

"How about no?"

Before Wolf could say anything else, Alex took his knife and plunged it into Wolf's skin. Although it didn't hurt as much as it could have, Wolf screamed. Loudly. He wanted Ben and Alex to see him as still human, someone who would get hurt, feel pain. He could be just as emotionally manipulative as them... well, probably not, they had studied under Doctor Three after all. Still, he knew emotional manipulation when he saw it.

Alex rolled his eyes. "And here I thought that we were just getting started. I thought SAS men were tougher than that."

"Oh, we are. I just decided to scream to piss you off," Wolf responded. "Alex, come on. This isn't you."

"Isn't it? Where do you know me from, anyway? Why do you know my name? And why do you call me Cub?"

Shit. With as frazzled as Alex's memory was, Wolf was not about to reveal himself to Alex. He also didn't want to reveal where he knew Cub from. "I called you Cub because you reminded me of a friend who has that nickname. I know your name is Alex because I know Ben, not Matt," Wolf responded. "We know each other."

"Oh, really," Alex sneered. He drove the knife deeper into Wolf's skin again. Wolf reacted by screaming louder. He glanced over at the other man who was starting to stir. "I'm going to leave you alone for now to think about this," Alex said as he took the knife away from Wolf's skin.

"Alex," Wolf said, calling out, "Do you think I could get a band-aid for my arm?" He hated showing a sign of weakness; to him, asking for a band-aid was like a sign of weakness. But he wanted to let Alex know that he was human.

"Fuck you," was all Alex said as he left the room.

Okay, maybe not.

* * *

**A/N: IMPORTANT - THE FACT THAT ALEX STUDIED UNDER DOCTOR 3 BELONGS TO SamayouTamashi. Thanks for letting me borrow it. PLEASE ASK HER TO BORROW THE IDEA.**

****Challenge: Is Alex _REALLY _evil? What about Ben? Or are they just misguided pawns of Scorpia? Let me know what you think in a review!

If you liked this, don't hesitate to check out my other works.


	3. Paranoia For Breakfast

A/N: Sorry for not updating this in so long... there are many, many different reasons for this, so I won't bore you with them all. I haven't abandoned my stories, I will slowly be working on updating them. Giverofgrace requested an update to this one so I thought that I would update it next. So, that being said, if there is a story you want to see updated, go to the story and review, or PM me if you've already reviewed, and I'll add it on my next list to update.

Thank you for all your patience. Plenty of Alex "whump" this chapter so I hope you enjoy... we'll see the rest of the team next chapter.

## break ##

Wolf groaned as he awoke, feeling the muscle cramps in his body from laying down too long. He needed to get up and going and be as physically active as possible, but of course, that may or may not be an option. His body was ready for action.

And it was a good thing his body was.

Matt - no, Ben - came into the room. Wolf couldn't help but stare. Ben seemed so different than when Wolf last remembered him. Wolf knew Ben would have changed, but he couldn't help but think of the many secrets that Ben was hiding behind those dark eyes.

What have you been doing, Ben? Wolf wanted to scream. What's going on with you? There must be some secret you're hiding. Come on, Ben. Break down and tell me, we can help.

"Good morning," Ben snarled. "How are you?" It wasn't a question, even though it was phrased like one.

"I'll be a whole lot better once you can tell me what's going on. Why are you calling yourself Matt? Why is Alex torturing people? What the hell is going on here, Ben?"

"My name isn't Ben, it's Matt. Hence why I'm calling myself Matt, you idiot. Why are you calling me Ben?"

"Because that used to be your name... Does it sound familiar at all?" Wolf asked, hesitantly.

"...Of course, but I'm not surprised. Ben's a familiar name." Ben looked at him. "Why do you think you know me?" He asked. His face was unreadable but he looked pissed. Really, really pissed. Wolf didn't care. He was even more pissed.

"Because I do, or rather, I used too," Wolf replied. "What do you want me for?" He asked.

"Well, it's not just you that I want. I would really like your whole team," Ben complained. "However, I'm thinking that now it was a stupid idea to just grab you. I needed to grab your whole team at once." He glanced at the ceiling. "I really can't afford to fuck this up. They'll hurt him if I do. So you," he said, "Will be helping me in this mission."

"Ben," he said, "is Scorpia threatening to hurt Alex if you screw this up?"

"My name ISN'T BEN!" 'Ben' yelled, grabbing at him and forcing him back against the door. Wolf tried to quickly process his thoughts. "Now you shut up and listen. I already know that your team is working with the damned FBI. We're still trying to figure out why you morons are in California for a vacation. That being said, I've grabbed one of the FBI's members too. I'm sure they'll be willing to swap some of your members out for that. And you shut the fuck up. If I catch you messing with my brother, there will be hell to pay."

With that, he walked out the door, leaving Wolf staring after him. He'd bet bottom dollar that Scorpia was involved in this somehow, based on what Alex had said. Quite possibly one scenario would be that SCORPIA had made this a mission to test their 'loyalty.'

Or, alternatively, to see how much their brainwashing held. Wolf had to think and think fast. So there was an FBI agent at the location - not good. But, the good news is, the FBI knew that he was missing. The team would surely rescue him. That being said, Wolf wasn't content just to lay around and wait and get rescued.

He had to start getting out of here, if for no other reason than the fact that he was bored.

But there were so many other reasons, too. Like making sure he got Ben and Alex the fuck out of here before any of Scorpia's members decided to help finish the job.

## break ##

Alex groaned as he rubbed his eyes. "Matt, can we kill Wolf yet? He's annoying me."

Matt rolled his eyes. "No, Alex. We still need him alive, remember? I couldn't bear having Scorpia hurt you again, they're willing to work with us now."

"Yeah, but we're going to need to kill him eventually, so why can't we kill him now?"

Matt sighed as he sat down. "Alex, when someone dies, they're really dead. We can't bring them back from the dead. Our mission is to kill all of K-Unit-"

"So why can't we kill Wolf now? Prove our loyalty early?" Alex asked. "I don't understand. Doctor Three would hate this plan."

Alex was looking out the window and missed the flash of hurt that ran across Matt's eyes. Matt walked over to him. "Alex, are you worried about going back and dealing with Doctor Three again?"

"Are there bugs in the apartment?" Alex snapped, not looking at Matt.

"Alex-" Matt started to say, only to drop off.

Alex began to pace. "For once, we're not being watched. We're not being tortured. I don't want to kill anyone, Matt. I really don't. I..." he sank into the couch and cuddled his arms.

"Alex, breathe," Matt ordered. "We're right here, it's okay, we're not with Scorpia. Breathe."

"But as soon as we kill the whole team we have to go back," Alex said, a tear rolling down his cheek. He ignored it and opted to glance out the window. "That's why I want to kill Wolf. I don't really want to kill Wolf. I just don't want to kill the whole team and have to go back. Can't we run away or something?"

"They'd find us, though. They always did before..." Matt gazed up at the ceiling. "We have nobody left but us, Alex. I can't let you get hurt again. I'm afraid they'd kill you if we ran away."

"I'd rather they kill me then stay locked up in a cage the whole time with Doctor Three," Alex whispered.

Matt sighed. "Alex, come on. Let's make some lunch, then talk about it."

"Food is always your solution," Alex grumbled. "Come on Matt! There has got to be another option! Scorpia does not own the whole damn globe! Just half of it and all of law enforcement!"

"I know, Alex... I know," Matt muttered.

"Hey, Matt?" Alex asked, suddenly changing the topic. "Why does that idiot in there keep calling you Ben?"

Matt froze. "I don't want to talk about it, Alex."

"Why does he do that? And why did he call me Cub?" Alex demanded. "I know he's a moron, but really, he sounded like I was someone else. Am I someone else?"

"Alex-"

"But your passport says you're a Matt, so clearly he's lying. But if he thinks we're someone else, and he trusts them... maybe he does... maybe we can pretend to be those people!" Alex said, his eyes lighting up.

"NO!" Matt said, turning around. "You heard Scorpia, Alex. If we deviate from the mission, they'll kill you. I'm not taking that chance, you understand me? I REFUSE TO TAKE THAT FUCKING CHANCE!" With that he stormed out, leaving a trail of invisible steam behind.

Alex raised his eyebrows and watched as Matt left the room. "Wow. Someone ate a dose of paranoia for breakfast."

## break ##

I want to thank anyone who has stuck with the story this long. Thank you for allowing me to take care of some things IRL. Now I'm back to updating fanfic.

Challenge: Will Wolf be able to win Alex over to their side?


	4. Snarled Words

A/N: To avoid any confusion I wanted to point out that Matt is Fox/Ben - currently under the name of Matt, just so you have that as a reminder. Hope you enjoy the update.

* * *

Alex cleaned out his gun, glancing warily at Matt, who was glaring at the phone. "You know, Matt," he spoke up, "that glaring at the phone does not mean that it will make it run any faster?"

"Shut up," Matt snarled as he turned away, opting to glare at the kitchen sink instead.

Enough was enough, Alex decided. He opted to conceal the weapon, tucking it into his trousers the way Dr. Three had taught him, and then walked over to Matt. "Okay, which girl didn't do it well enough this time?" he asked.

Matt shot him a look that would have killed anyone else.

"OK, you haven't done it with any girls since last Wednesday?" Alex guessed again, not even mildly phased by Matt's glare. This was how they would communicate when Matt couldn't talk; Alex would guess random topics until Matt broke down swearing and screaming about whatever had happened and then life would go back to normal.

Another glare from Matt. "How do you know so much about my sex life?" he muttered under his breath.

"It's not hard to hide it when I sleep on the couch," Alex offered. Whoops. Another glare. He backed away ever so slightly, trying to read his brother's face. "OK, let's see. The guy in the basement said something to piss you off?" That would have been the American federal agent, Colby.

Really, Alex was unclear about why Matt had even kidnapped him. Matt had muttered something about wrong place, wrong time, but Alex knew deep down that wasn't the reason. Doctor Three had once beaten Matt so bad he'd broken a leg because Matt had left a witness alive. Of course, that witness had been younger. Matt refused to kill or kidnap children.

"Okay, it's because Wolf said something that pissed you off?" Alex guessed. Since he'd been around Matt all week, he had a feeling that there were only so many things that could set his friend off. And he would know if he was one of them.

"The fucking idiot said I was fucking Ben." Matt stared at the wall now, as if it could hold all answers of life.

Alex burst out laughing. "Is that all?"

"It annoyed the fuck out of me, alright?" Matt snapped.

"Yeah, I gathered that. You know, you had been doing better about not saying fuck lately, too, but I think you broke that resolution today... so I think it more than just bothered you." If anyone else would have pushed Matt this far he would have snapped, but not Alex. Alex and Matt had a RULE. They would not use the techniques Doctor Three had taught them on each other.

They'd heard too many screams from the other because they were helpless from Doctor Three...They weren't going to do it again.

Matt moved over to the couch and sighed, "Alex, come over here."

"What is it, storytime for toddlers or something?" Alex quipped, not used to seeing Matt so upset-well, nevermind. He wasn't even going to attempt to explain himself on that one. The last time he'd seen his friend this upset was when Doctor Three had been around.

"About that," Matt said. "He said that he used to know me. That my name used to be Ben. That you used to be Cub."

"Matt, that's the same shit he's been feeding me all week!" Alex complained. "Come on! I've been whining about that to you all week, but all you've been doing is snarling about how his bastard unit is going to get it!"

"Yeah, but Alex... I think he's telling the truth." Matt looked crushed.

Alex sighed and dropped his voice. "Well, could that be a good thing?" he questioned.

"What do you mean?" Matt asked.

"Maybe we are someone else. If we are someone else, we wouldn't have to put up with Doctor Three."

"But if we are someone else, how do we find out?" Matt wailed.

Alex resisted the urge to bang his head across the table. "Well... We could try and trap his unit into telling us. Then we would just like we were doing the job that we were sent out to do?" he suggested.

Matt broke into a smile, "I like the way you think." His grin faded. "Now we need a way to figure this all out."

"Easy," Alex volunteered. "I have a few ideas..."

* * *

Snake groaned as he awoke. He was getting one hour of sleep - that's all he'd really wanted, just that one damn hour - but it looked like even that was too much for him to ask for. He grabbed his phone, not recognizing the number. "Who is this?"

"This is Matt."

There was no way that was a Matt. Snake ran through the rooms, waving his hand frantically at Megan, who had also fallen asleep. This sounded way too damn much about Ben. Except it couldn't have been Ben. "This is Snake." He jammed the phone into the tracer, hard.

"Good. Do you know what I want?" he asked.

"Actually... I'm not really sure."

"Well, I've been sent on a mission to kill you and your team."

It figured. Of course someone had been sent on a bloody mission to kill his team. "So... You say that like you expect my cooperation on something."

"I do," the man's voice said.

There's no way in hell this is Matt, Snake thought to himself. No way in hell. This sounds too damn much like Ben. But he also knew it could be a Matt, so he braced himself.

"So what do you want?"

"I'm not going to take out your whole team all at once. Really, what I mainly want to do is talk. You see, there's a minor who is involved in a very bad lifestyle. It's one I'd like him out of... maybe you and I can work something out."

A minor involved in a very bad lifestyle... Snake's blood ran cold. Oh shit. No way. Ben and Cub had been dead for six months, the team had gone to their funeral. "Maybe," was all he simply said. "When do you want to meet?"

"Tonight, the old shopping center. You're buying."

"What time?"

"Eleven o'clock. And there had better damn not be anyone else."

"Right. Nobody else."

"Be there," the voice said. Then they hung up.

Megan sleepily walked in the room. "Did you get anything?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Good... What was it?"

"Someone wants to meet. I think it's the same guy that has our guys."

"Let me guess-he wants to meet you, alone?"

"Yeah," Snake said, "but he didn't say anything about not having anything about me not having a tracker... ro something along those lines."

Megan smiled. "Let's go to the war room. I'm sure we can work something out."

* * *

Whoa, yes - it is an update! My goal is to make the next one longer, but I wanted you to have this one for right now.


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